Category Archives: Resilience

Posted onSeptember 24, 2015|Comments Off on Video — Guilford, Connecticut: A Case Study in Building Resilience

This new video case study from The Council of State Governments/Eastern Regional Conference documents efforts by officials in Guilford, Connecticut, together with The Nature Conservancy, to develop a Community Coastal Resilience Plan. The video includes interviews with a number of key participants, including: state officials who were part of the Connecticut Shoreline Preservation Task Force, which conducted hearings in communities across the state to assess their level of preparedness to deal with future extreme storms; local officials and homeowners in Guilford; and the director of science at The Nature Conservancy.

Posted onNovember 21, 2014|Comments Off on White House Task Force Uses Lessons from Sandy and Irene to Urge Changes in Federal Programs, Support for Resilience

The White House last week released a long-awaited report from the Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience, the result of a yearlong effort to distill the collective experience of state, local and tribal governments dealing with extreme weather events into recommendations to enhance the help available from federal agencies. Continue reading →

Posted onOctober 23, 2014|Comments Off on New York State’s Bold New Plan to Restructure Its Electricity System

Electricity is rediscovering its roots by virtue of the advantages that twenty-first century technologies offer. In the transportation sector, cleaner more fuel-efficient electric vehicles recall the early years of the automobile industry, when nearly one-third of cars manufactured in the U.S. had electric motors. And today’s electricity grid is revisiting the embryonic power system of the late eighteen- and early nineteen-hundreds, when electricity generated in small neighborhood plants powered gears and kept the lights on. Continue reading →

Posted onMay 13, 2014|Comments Off on A Year and a Half and Counting: The Status of the Post-Sandy Recovery in the NY/NJ Region

More than eighteen months after Superstorm Sandy devastated parts of the Eastern United States, many of the worst-hit towns and neighborhoods are still waiting to return to a semblance of normal life. The protracted recovery process underscores the power of the storm, especially along coastal New York and New Jersey. But its slow pace also raises a question: Why is the implementation of post-Sandy rebuilding plans taking so long? Continue reading →

Posted onJuly 11, 2013|Comments Off on During Sandy, Dunes Provided an Effective Defense

Maintaining healthy dune and beach systems is often considered a critical – if controversial — practice among those responsible for protecting vulnerable coastal communities. During Superstorm Sandy, the existence of fortified dunes and beaches often spelled the difference between minor and catastrophic damage in areas that were hardest hit by the storm’s massive surge. Continue reading →

The destructive forces unleashed by Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 and Superstorm Sandy in 2012 have left a number of northeastern states with challenging decisions about how best to manage the risks of increasingly frequent and severe weather events. One particularly complex issue involves policy approaches to sites that undergo repeated flooding. Continue reading →

Posted onMarch 20, 2013|Comments Off on College of Staten Island Hosts a “Serious Conversation” about the Borough’s Post-Sandy Future

Superstorm Sandy unleashed a powerful assault on Staten Island in late October. The island’s position in New York Harbor at the Narrows — where waters from the large Lower Bay funnel into the small Upper Bay — along with the storm’s westward shift at landfall focused Sandy’s energy on its southeastern shore. Communities such as New Dorp, Midland Beach and Oakwood Beach were battered by the storm surge, which also coincided with high tide. Continue reading →